Customer Reviews

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

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H.W. Brands takes on an "American original" for the first time since his seminal, single-volume biography of Benjamin Franklin, and does a very good job with his subject. The author presents, in under 600 pages, all the most important facets of "the People's President" and his devotion which not only preserved the Union, but made democracy flourish in an uncertain, turbulent time.

Andrew Jackson was devoted to many things for many reasons, and Brands shows us why, even if at times this man of the people seems a contradiction. The writing is precise and clear, though hardly the flowing prose of McCullough or Ellis (as has been remarked); yet it is the precision, craft and careful presentation employed by Brands that make this largely successful single-volume work shine. And if some may find the prose a little dry in places, the author more than compensates by interweaving a rich background tapestry for readers in every chapter, presenting a clear, historical context for observations about Jackson's character formation, mentality, psychology, military strategy, attitudes, decisions, and political development.

With surprising efficiency and admirable attention to detail, Brands brings the life of Andrew Jackson into intense focus, particularly at crucial moments like his difficult childhood and the gradual loss of his family during the Revolutionary War (Jackson's father died shortly before his namesake son was born); the privations, tribulations, humiliation, injury, loss, and intense insecurity of the seventh president's boyhood cannot be overstated. Andrew Jackson's time in the expanding Western frontier and his rise from a local popular politician to soldier; his persecution of Native Americans in the name of national security; the War of 1812; the road to the presidency and beyond: It's all here, along with important insights into Jackson's personal life, including his abiding love for his wife, his passion for horses, his near inability to govern his passions and almost suicidal emotionalism; the tender foster parent, remorseless warrior, and every other important aspect of the psychology of a man alternately thin-skinned and thick-skinned, devoted unto death by some turns and completely lacking in self-effacement by others.

Some readers may come away appalled by Andrew Jackson, his warts especially unattractive and unappealing in hindsight, but perhaps they will nonetheless appreciate the man who was devoted to serving his country -the infant United States of America- and moreover, was willing to sacrifice everything, from his own wife to the lives of others, to secure the Union he so loved. It is a testament that such a rude, hard-drinking, tobacco-chewing, honor-obsessed madman had the fortitude and character to carry forth his convictions which, Brands shows us, preserved the Union in its darkest hours, in both war and peace: Jackson prevented the dissolution of America almost as much by pure will as political acumen, and a strange love, an abiding devotion that was indeed as tough as hickory.

Whether one comes to respect or despise "Old Hickory," one could do worse for a single-volume treatment of the man's life, and while brisk and more businesslike than "The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," and not quite as compelling, it's arguably the finest contribution to literature on Jackson in nearly two decades, and more portable than Robert Remini's daunting three-volume definitive biography, which was recently condensed into a single volume. While Remini's one-volume distillation is a good book, Brands' work may be judged as good, if not a cut above.

Andrew Jackson led a colorful and complex life in his 78 years. He was a military genius, plantation owner, Indian fighter, a racist toward non-whites, controversial loser of the 1824 and easy winner of the 1828 & 1832 Presidential elections, orphan, scarred by the British and married to a married woman, his true love. Mr. Brands tells his story of a man of contradictions in 600+ pages.

Mr. Brands writes a dense, just the facts approach in his biography of this populist President from the West who campaigned against the elitist Northeast. The true climax of his Presidency was his delaying the onset of the Civil War with his staring down his own Vice-President and the South with a genuine military show of force during the secession crisis.

Mr. Brands has written the best one volume biography of the seventh President, surpasssing Robert Remini's own 400+ page condensation ("The Life of Andrew Jackson"--1988) of his classic trilogy on Andrew Jackson. However, given that Jackson was at the center of American history for over 60 years, the reader is referred to Mr. Remini's three volume definitive biography of 1,600 pages (1977, 1981, 1984) for a fuller, richer picture of this fascinating President. In deciding which to read, it depends on how much time and how much interest the reader has in Andrew Jackson.

For all his prominence among American presidents, Andrew Jackson has been the subject of fewer major biographies than one might assume. There is, of course, the masterful three-volume biography by Remini, which is and will remain for some time the major biography of Jackson, as well as the classic single volume by Arthur Schlesinger THE AGE OF JACKSON, a very great book even though Jackson emerges as more or less a proto 1930s New Dealer. This excellent new biography by H. W. Brands, who among his many interesting books wrote a stellar biography of Benjamin Franklin, does not supplant either of these books, but rather supplements them. While Remini's remains the for-now definitive biography of Jackson, those not willing or possessing the time to work through his three-volume work can feel easy about turning to this single-volume biography. I should note that Remini has produced a one-wolume condensation of his longer work, but I must confess an inherent bias against abridgements, even if performed by the author himself.

Of all the American presidents, Andrew Jackson lived the fullest, most colorful life. Only Teddy Roosevelt can come close for the variety of his life's experiences and even he falls far short of all that Jackson managed to do or be in his life. Jackson was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, briefly a school teacher, a lawyer, a judge, a U.S. Representative to Congress, a U.S. Senator, a circuit judge, a duelist, a gambler, a slave owner and trader, a dry goods salesman, a farmer, a landowner, a major general in the state militia, an Indian fighter, and a general in the U.S. Army, all before achieving national fame at the Battle of New Orleans. One could argue that Jackson is not as interesting as some more physically sedate but more psychologically complex presidents such as John Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, or the two Roosevelts, but none of these others can match Jackson for the sheer pace at which he got things done.

Brands does a great job at highlighting the more interesting aspects of Jackson's life. Given the amazing variety of his life's experiences, this is perhaps not that great of an achievement. He does in addition a fine job of bringing Jackson the person into focus, with his almost savage pride and propensity to take offense. "Thin-skinned" does not seem to describe Jackson as well as "no-skinned" might. Other political figures in American history fought duels, but none with such aggression. He was the only president to have killed a man in a duel. Jackson emerges as a vibrant, fascinating, and compelling character, if not someone you especially like. Brands is also good at placing Jackson in his time, which was the point in the nation's history when the Federalists and the Republicans (the Federalists later fragmented and the remnants became the Republican party while the Republicans later called themselves during the Jacksonian period Democrats) were contending over whether the new nation would be a representative republic in which the elite in the nation would provide the major voice in selecting the nation's leaders and determining its policies or whether a popular democracy rooted in the people would. The great advocate of popular democracy was, of course, Thomas Jefferson, but as Brands points out, he was himself very much an aristocrat. Jackson not only shared Jefferson's passion for a popular democracy but was also very much a man of the people and one of the most important aspects of his presidency was that he was the first president to derive from the people with the support of the people, instead of an aristocrat nominated through caucuses among political leaders. The placing of the presidency in the hands of the people was one of Jackson's greatest achievements.

Nearly as important as the promotion of what came to be known as Jacksonian Democracy was Jackson's expansion of the powers of the presidency. This is the weakest part of the book. Under Jackson the presidency acquired powers completely beyond anything seen before. Brands doesn't ignore this fact, but he doesn't stress it explicitly as much as he could or should have. Although he writes extensively on the banking issue, he doesn't draw out all of the implications that this would have for the presidency. Indeed, Jackson is unquestionably one of the two or three most important presidents in defining the powers of the executive branch.

One of the things that fascinates anyone who reads much about Jackson is his strong states' rights stance on nearly every issue on the one hand coupled with his his passionate embrace of the union. For instance, if Jackson had been president in late 1860 instead of James Buchanan, he would unquestionably have invaded South Carolina in the early days of their secession and crushed the rebellion despite the probability that he would have sided with the South on every issue except the right to secede. Brands makes no more sense of this than any other biographer, but he does a superb job of making the reader feel how passionately Jackson felt about national unity. In the Nullification Crisis he made it crystal clear that he regarded nullification or secession as an impossibility and would use the military against South Carolina if it attempted to undertake either. Brands does not explain why Jackson felt so passionately on this issue, but he makes clear his passion on the issue.

There are two other things I like about Brands's biography. One is that it is hard to detect any signs of partisanship. Sometimes--though not as often as the detectors of "bias" would have it--biographers write a biography with an axe to grind. If Brands has an axe, he has hidden it well. Also, while not ignoring Jackson's faults, he takes the justifiable stance that while many of his positions would be lamentable today, they were often standard at the time. For instance, Jackson's views on both Native Americans and slavery were not especially enlightened (though he armed freed blacks in the defense of New Orleans, a step that few Southerners in the Civil War were willing to undertake), and his role in the relocation of Native Americans is lamentable and not mitigated by the undeniable fact that their relocation was probably inevitable. At the same time, Brands does not try to excuse Jackson's many moral faults, his intense temper, his misplaced pride, his irascibility, his aggressiveness. He was under no circumstances a great moral exemplar.

In short, this is a very good single volume biography of one of our most important and interesting presidents. In presidential scholars' polls Jackson is frequently rated as a "Near Great" president and inhabits that rung of presidential greatness just below Washington, Lincoln, and FDR and beside other "Near Great" presidents such as Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. By any standard Jackson remains one of the most important presidents for anyone interested in American history to know something about. Furthermore, since Jackson's military and public career extended from the American Revolution until just short of mid-19th century, to study Jackson is literally to study the history of the republic's first half decade.

OK - I'll admit how little I knew of Jackson as I started this biography. Battle of New Orleans, Old Hickory, Hermitage, 7th President, and that was about it. If you find yourself close to my level of ignorance, then you owe it to yourself to read this book.

Brands has written a biography that reads like fiction. In a life that stretched from the Revolution to the entry of Texas, Jackson was instrumental in the shaping of both our current notion of representative democracy and the actual shape that our Union now assumes. One could argue that he is the most influential President not on Mt. Rushmore.

Brands' biography touches on the unsavory side of Jackson: his slave holding, dueling, and most of all, his instrumental role in seizing America from the Native American tribes. I think Brands stops short of exonerating Jackson, but he does place him in context. The reader is left to be the final judge, but there is little doubt that Brands feels Jackson's undeniable greatness overshadows his undeniable flaws.

Overall, I found this a fascinating look at an unjustly forgotten great American. Reading this was time well spent.

I saw Brands speak here in Dallas while I was reading this book, and I want to include a couple of comments he made to put the book in perspective.

Brands said he saw a disconnect in historians' view of Jackson over time. As recently as the 1950s, Jackson would have been on a short list of the greatest presidents of all time. But his stature has fallen in recent years, Brands postulates, because: 1) He was an unapologetic slaveholder, though a largely humane one; 2) He was an unapologetic and militant expansionist; 3) His actions in battle and decisions in offices led to the deaths of entire populations of Native Americans, particularly in the south. These three traits don't play well in the politically correct culture of today.

However, Brands does not focus his book on explaining away these so-called faults, though he addresses them and paints Jackson in somewhat sympathetic terms. Rather, he aims to show how Jackson is largely responsible for two things that current audiences take for granted: preservation of the union, and the spread of popular rule.

Jackson as a general helped preserve the union at the Battle of New Orleans and again as president when he stood down South Carolina's nullification of a federal tariff. He was the first "common man" to be elected to the presidency and led the charge to have electors chosen by popular vote, rather than by state legislators.

While it would be hard to envision a United States without either of these concepts now, during Jackson's time they were truly revolutionary positions. In a strong final chapter, Brands discusses how it was another man from what was then the American West, Abraham Lincoln, who carried Jackson's mantle on both of these through their greatest threat in the Civil War.

My only complaint with this book is that Jackson's presidency seems almost an afterthought. He isn't elected until nearly 400 pages into the book, and his eight-year tenure is covered in about 100 pages. Given that he would be the last two-term president until Grant, I expected more coverage of this period. However, there are other books on the topic of Jackson's time in office, and this book adds the perspective of the 60 years of his life that preceded it, including great anecdotes that describe his incendiary personality.

This is great history by a great historian and writer.

Too many Americans know Andrew Jackson only as the old guy on the $20 bill. But now Bill Brands has brought this seminal 19th Century figure to life for a new generation of readers with a fascinating biography of a truly extraordinary American.

Jackson, Brands writes, was nothing short of the second George Washington. In 1814-15, it was not at all clear that the fledgling republican experiment would survive. Secessionist sentiment swirled in Federalist New England. The British had torched the nation's capital, and demanded American dismemberment as the price of peace. Fresh off their victory over Napoleon, a British land and sea force stood poised to invade at New Orleans and cut the country in half. In opposition, stood General Jackson and a poorly armed band of army regulars, militia, pirates, ex-slaves and locals of sometimes dubious loyalty. It was, Brands says, America's darkest winter since Valley Forge.

That's when the second Washington emerged: Jackson turned back the British threat at New Orleans, destroying Wellington's Invincibles (under the commanded of Wellington's son-in-law) and ensuring that the Louisiana territory would remain part of the United States. Like Washington, Jackson rode battlefield success to two terms in the White House, ushering in a new phase in the American experiment: popular democracy.

Jackson went on to wage vigorous battles on behalf of the common man. Not all of them, well guided, in retrospect. His successful assault on the Second Bank of the United States would leave the country without a central bank - or an adequate means of controlling its money supply - for 70+ years, exaggerating the sharp busts and booms that marked the 19th Century American economy. On the other hand, although viscerally opposed to central authority and in favor of states rights, Jackson was a fierce patriot, believing that all liberty and all security stemmed from the preservation of the Union. He would bring this conviction home at the point of a bayonet when his native South Carolina threatened secession during the Nullification Crisis.

Jackson was certainly no angel. As military commander, he usurped civilian authority on more than one occasion. He engaged in duels and a wild street-brawl with men 20 years his junior (which nearly killed him), and possessed a hair-trigger temper, exacerbated Brands says, by chronic poor health. His Indian removal policy has drawn the opprobrium of modern critics far removed from the frontier dangers of the early 19th Century.

Brands portrays both the good and bad in Andrew Jackson, summoning all the narrative gifts he demonstrated so abundantly in "An Age of Gold" and "Lone Star Nation" as well as earlier biographies of Ben Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt. Highly recommended.

And unlike open admirers like Remini and Schlesinger, H.W. Brands should be given credit for presenting the man as he was.

Most of us with any sense of American History know that Jackson routed the British in the last major military engagement of the War of 1812 - the Battle of New Orleans, fought actually two weeks after the war ended. Most of us know what a capable and determined President he was, Professor Brands sheds light on the things that we either do not know or know little about.

For example:

Thanks to Andrew Jackson, we have a Bank of America but NOT a Bank of the United States! There was actually a national bank whose power became too all-consuming. Jackson closed that bank, allowing open competition to flourish.

Jackson was extremely popular not just as a war hero, but as a common man - reared on the then-frontier of the Carolinas and Tennessee, rough sown territories where men would settle accounts by duels, where children were often the product of illegitimate relations, and where hate of the Indians and of Blacks flourished. Jackson was a product of the backwoods, shared many of their prejudices, and tended to alienate friends as much as he did foes. For example, Davey Crockett was a valued scout and soldier in Jackson's war against the Creeks - and a friend to boot. That friendship ended when Jackson cruelly chose to force the expulsion of peaceful Cherokees along with the Creeks to the Oklahoma territory. The then Whig Congressman Crockett stood firmly and bravely against President Jackson's "Treaty of Tears" policies - and ended up ousted by Jackson's cronies in the following election. Crockett of course is better known for his subsequent death at the Alamo than for his gallant stand against Jackson's anti-Indian policies in Congress.

Another friend who had unease over Jackson's hate of Indians was Sam Houston, who actually went to live with the Cherokees following the scandal that erupted over his wife's desertion of him when he was governor of Tennessee. But Houston chose political expediency over standing up to Jackson, and kept mum - and in Andy's good graces.

Jackson's hate of Indians came out of his hate of the British, who killed members of his family, indirectly caused his mother's death tending to American prisoners-of-war on a British prison ship (she took ill and died due to exposure and neglect), and his own experience as a teenager when refusing to shine the boots of a British officer was slashed almost to the bone by the officer's sword in the bitter, backwoods fighting in the Carolinas. But fighting armed warriors is one thing; expelling peaceful citizens is quite another, as well as defying the Supreme Court's Chief Justice John Marshall who sought to prevent the Cherokee expulsions. In one of his more infamous statements, Jackson asserted that "John Marshall made the law. Now let him enforce it". Of course a modern day President might have faced impeachment, but not Andrew Jackson.

Jackson also held the Racist views of his time - promising, then going back on his word, the freedom of slaves who fought alongside American soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans. As a Southerner and Slaveowner, Jackson was sympathetic to the States' Rights of the South - but to his everlasting credit, he did put the preservation of the Union first over territorial rights, and was willing, as Professor Brands notes in much of the book, to stand firm and even threaten the South with military force. His main antagonist during the 1832 secession crisis was not only another old friend but his own then-Vice President, John C. Calhoun, who favored secession - and stood down when Jackson threatened to send Winfield Scott and the United States Army down to Charleston.

Jackson's firmness prevented South Carolina from seceding in 1832, and in doing so, kept the rest of the South in line. But his pro-south policies otherwise, including his fervent wish for the annexation of Texas would only mean trouble ahead for the future and weak Presidents such as Pierce and Buchanan.

As one reviewer stated, Professor Brands does not have the narrative gifts of a David McCullough. In fact, his "T.R." bio came up far short to McCullough's biography of Roosevelt's early years - "Mornings on Horseback". But he does give us an excellent biography of Jackson that does give us a full picture of the man - and does include the Racist and mean-spirited warts and all.

Back in the 1980s, there was a crime movie called Action Jackson. That movie was forgettable, but Andrew Jackson - who could be called the original Action Jackson - definitely is one of the more memorable presidents.

In a way, H.W. Brands's well-written biography of Jackson is a story of Action Jackson. In this chronicle of Jackson's life, the focus is on the early life of Jackson, the period when he fought the British (in two wars), the Spanish and the Indians, as well as a couple of duels or other gunfights, a period that takes up nearly two-thirds of the book. (By way of comparison, in Robert Remini's definitive three volume biography of Jackson, the same material covers only one book (or roughly a third).)

The remaining part of Brands's book covers the more political portion of Jackson's life; although he had served in various positions from his twenties onward, he never really contributed much on that front until his later life. After the heroics of the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson was put on the national stage and in 1824, he ran for president. Despite winning a plurality of both the popular and electoral vote, he didn't have the majority, throwing the election to the House of Representatives where Henry Clay was able to swing the Presidency to John Quincy Adams. This wound up being a Pyrrhic victory, as the Adams presidency wound up being ineffective and Jackson easily wound up winning in 1828.

There is a lot to admire about Andrew Jackson, including his integrity, courage and dedication to family. There is also a lot in Jackson to frown upon: his possession of slaves (even if he was not especially cruel to them), his often callous treatment of Indians and his violent temper, rarely eased in a life filled with constant physical misery (it is a testament to his strength and willpower that he was able to accomplish so much while perpetually afflicted by disease and injury). So what merits his status as an above-average president who can be honored on the twenty-dollar bill?

For one thing, Jackson was the first "populist" president, the first who really represented the will of the people. Under his tenure, the United States became more of a democracy; in fact, the term Jacksonian Democracy is used to describe this philosophy of the era. A political party - the Whigs - more or less came about as an opposition party to Jackson. Jackson also had a strong leadership style that proved essential during a secession crisis with South Carolina; a lesser president could have made the situation devolve into civil war (in fact, a lesser president - James Buchanan - would). Finally, Jackson is partially defined by the string of weak presidents that followed him; with the possible exception of Polk, there would be no strong executives after Jackson until Lincoln, eight presidents and twenty-four years later.

As expected from Brands, this is a top-notch biography; while Remini's work remains the best on Jackson, this one is excellent as well and may be better for those who don't have time for a three volume set (although with 560 pages of text, this is also not a one-day read). Brands is one of the best history writers around today, and this book once again shows just how good he is.

H. W. Brands has written the definative biography of Andrew Jackson. His military life, life in the growing west, growing Union and family life are all well researched and written. Brands is clearly at his best in defining the changing political and foreign policy landscape at this crossroad in American democracy. Our nation was young and quite unsure of both our Constitution and our reason for being a republic. Brands has been critisized for overly covering Jackson before he became President and then not dedicating the time and pages to the Jackson Administration. I think that disengenuous.

Understanding his various policies while in office can only be seen though the lens of his life. Why was he for expansion of our "borders" at the time? Why was he often for military action? Why was he against the Bank of the United States? All of these and many others certainly could not be understood without a well researched and documented earlier life of Jackson.

Brands really drives home the "newness" of the nation and the transition from a group of colonies to a unified country. He also covers and explains in terrific detail the politics and political parties of the time and the early stages of the Democratic and Whig parties where the Republicans had previously had a monopoly after the Federalists self-destructed. Finally, Professor Brands shows how slavery made a "comeback" in the south with expansion and cotton becoming a huge cash crop. He leaves little doubt that the march toward Civil War was steadily gaining steam.

Jackson really came to life in this biography. With all the relatively new historical works coming out it is terrific that Andrew Jackson and his period of our history is getting its due. Brands is apparently writing a book on the Gilded Age for the Oxford History of the U. S. series that has been nothing short of groundbreaking. I suspect he will be even better with that work as his ability to put people and events into a historical context is clearly a strongpoint of his. Interestingly Daniel Howe of UCLA will be writing on the Jackson Era for the same series with both books due out some time early in 2007.

Lastly, the University of Texas won the national championship but really scored big by getting Brands back to their history department from their Aggie rivals at Texas A&M.

I looked forward to the release of this book with great anticipation and began reading it as soon as I finished the other book I was then reading. After reading Brands' wonderful biography of Benjamin Franklin that was a deserving finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, I hoped for more of the same from this treatment of Andrew Jackson. I was slightly disappointed.

The earlier sections and chapters of the book were wonderful giving great detail about Jackson's ancestry and early life of hardship including the loss of everyone close to him. Brands does a wonderful job telling the story of how Jackson improved himself by studying law, the rough journey west to Tennessee and the difficulties of life on the frontier in the late 18th and early 19th century. The sections on Jackson's military career also stand out as some of the best parts of this book. I feel, however, that the book died off during the section on Jackson's Presidency. His presidency was pivotal in American history and helped define a new age of American politics and deserved greater attention than it seemed to receive in this book. Some of the key events (particularly the nullification crisis and even the bank war) seemed to be glossed over because either the author or editor wanted to keep the number of pages down. The final section on Jackson's post-Presidential years also seemed to be trimmed down for the purpose of keeping the book under 600 pages of text. I would personally prefer the added pages because it provides a fuller portrait of such a pivotal figure and his importance to American history.

Overall, this was a good book with many excellent sections, but for those who read "The First American" and are hoping for more of the same as I was will be slightly disappointed that it doesn't live up to Brands' previous work.